Why the poor cousin of the marketing mix deserves a seat at the top table
For years, affiliate marketing has been treated as the poor cousin of the marketing mix.
Paid search gets the budget. Social gets the attention. SEO gets the strategy. PR gets the headlines. Influencers get the excitement.
And affiliate?
Too often, it gets a network login, a CPA target and a collection of voucher and cashback partners sitting somewhere towards the bottom of the marketing plan. At BlackBx, we think that’s fundamentally wrong because affiliate isn’t really a channel at all.
It’s a commercial model.
And once you look at it that way, its potential becomes considerably bigger. Affiliate can provide access to publishers, creators, comparison sites, communities, loyalty programmes, closed user groups, technology partners, other brands and some of the world’s largest media organisations.
It can create awareness. Generate demand. Influence consideration. Provide third-party validation. Acquire new customers. Convert existing demand. Build loyalty. Generate content. Support SEO. Amplify PR and increasingly, contribute to the wider information ecosystem influencing AI-powered discovery. All while retaining one of marketing’s most compelling characteristics:
A direct relationship between investment and commercial outcome.
This isn’t the channel at the bottom of the funnel. It’s a commercial layer that can run through the whole thing.
The numbers tell a very different story
If affiliate really is marketing’s poor cousin, it’s a surprisingly productive one.
UK businesses invested approximately £1.8 billion in affiliate and partner marketing in 2025.
That investment generated £20.7 billion in revenue and 357 million transactions.
That’s approximately 41,000 transactions every hour.
The reported return on investment was 15:1.
During Cyber Weekend, more than £1 in every £7 spent online was tracked through an affiliate link.
Affiliate and partner marketing spend grew 7.3% during 2025, despite a challenging economic environment.
And almost one pound in every five invested in the channel is now being spent outside traditional last-click CPA arrangements.
Affiliate is already evolving beyond the model many marketers still associate with it.
The perception simply hasn’t caught up.
The problem starts with the word “channel”
Google Ads is a channel. Meta is a channel. Email is a channel. Display is a channel. Affiliate is different. Affiliate describes how a commercial relationship is structured, rather than where marketing activity takes place.
That distinction matters because an affiliate programme can encompass:
National newspapers and magazines
Specialist editorial publishers
Comparison sites
Creators and influencers
Cashback platforms
Loyalty programmes
Voucher partners
Employee benefit schemes
Student and membership communities
Technology partners
Card-linked offers
Shopping partners
Lead generators
Brand-to-brand partnerships
Content creators
Closed user groups
These aren’t one audience and they aren’t one media format and they certainly don’t perform one function.
So why do we continue bundling them together and evaluating them as though they are one homogenous marketing channel?
Affiliate isn’t the bottom of the funnel
One of the most persistent criticisms of affiliate marketing is that it harvests existing demand. The customer has already decided to buy. They reach the checkout, Search for a discount code, Click an affiliate link, The publisher receives commission for a transaction that would have happened anyway. Does this happen? Of course, but it isn’t an argument against affiliate marketing.
It’s an argument against badly managed affiliate marketing. The modern affiliate ecosystem can operate across almost every stage of the customer journey.
DISCOVERY
Editorial publishers, creators, influencers and specialist content platforms can introduce entirely new audiences to a brand. Affiliate creates demand.
CONSIDERATION
Reviews, comparison sites, buying guides and expert content help consumers evaluate different options. Affiliate influences preference.
VALIDATION
Trusted publishers, customer communities and expert recommendations provide independent reassurance. Affiliate builds confidence.
CONVERSION
Cashback, loyalty, promotional and closed-user-group partners can provide the final incentive required to act. Affiliate closes demand.
RETENTION
Rewards, loyalty and strategic partnerships can provide another reason to purchase again. Affiliate can increase lifetime value.
The question therefore shouldn’t be:
“Is affiliate incremental?”
It should be: